Of Castles and Legends

It has been a long week, but indeed an incredible one. As part of my core class, Healthcare in Northern Europe, the 27 students in my track traveled to Estonia and Finland for 6 days. Our trip was a mixture of academic visits and sight-seeing, as well as plenty of free time for exploring on our own.

We arrived in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, on Sunday night after a short but shaky flight. The plane was wobbling for awhile before take-off, which was not a great start considering how much I hate flying. But the flight was smooth, and I took a great nap. After checking in to our hotel, the group ventured out to Olde Hansa, a medieval-style restaurant. The decor was exactly how you would imagine an old castle to be - long wooden tables, lots of candles, and intricate tapestries. The waiters and waitresses wore medieval costumes (pointy elf shoes and all), and even the bathrooms had old style sinks and toilets. My food choices were a bit limited, but the point of the meal was the atmosphere, to introduce us to the culture of old Tallinn, and to allow the group to bond and relax together on the first night of our long study tour.

Jonelle and me with a waitress from Olde Hansa

Estonia is the farthest north I had ever been (though later this trip Helsinki would claim that title). At a latitude of 59°22'N, Tallinn is on a close line with Alaska. The weather promised to be colder than Copenhagen, but we did not expect to walk out of our hotel on Monday morning and into icy rain and gusts of wind, just in time for our walking tour of the Old Town. We walked through the cobblestone streets of the oldest portion of the city, taking in the view and learning about different sites.

As you can see, it was rather gray outside. This picture was taken at a dry point. But the wind was whipping around so strongly, picture-taking got a bit difficult. This was a particular problem for girls - half of the group pictures made everyone look like Cousin Itt. But despite the unfortunate cloud coverage, it was easy to see that Tallinn is beautiful.

The rest of our day was taken up by two academic visits. We went to the Terve Eesti Sihtasutus (Estonian Health Foundation) to hear about their work with the rising HIV epidemic in Estonia. According to the WHO, Estonia has one of the highest prevalence of HIV in Europe, with an estimated 1% of the entire adult population being infected. Though the epidemic is still concentrated in the Russian-speaking injecting drug-using population, the numbers are enormous when compared to the total population of Estonia. The Health Foundation that we visited targeted programs at employers and various companies, since an HIV-positive workforce is rising. We are not quite sure what the organization does or how it is financed since our guest speaker did not reach that point in her presentation, but it definitely got the group thinking about the consequences of infectious disease in Estonia and the rest of Eastern Europe.

Our second academic visit was to a general practitioner's office in Tallinn. Though our group got the feeling that the doctor did not particularly want to lecture to us, we tried to be open-minded and listen to her insights to the Estonian healthcare system. There is a shortage of doctors in Estonia, as well as a shortage of nurses. There is an increasing trend of medical workers leaving the country to seek higher wages (Finland is a popular choice of destination). However, the remaining doctors do what they can to provide adequate service and keep costs down. The clinic that we visited served 10,000 patients in the Tallinn area. There were exam rooms, a conference room, and a lab, as well as a salt chamber for respiratory ailments. Though there was no evidence, common belief in the area was that salty air was good for the respiratory tract when your illness was acute enough. Some members of the group were doubtful of the salt room's effectiveness, while others were captivated by the taste of it. (Yes, one student scooped up a small amount of salt to sample.)

The rest of the evening was free. Unable to bear the thought (or the price) or another medieval Estonian dinner, I went to dinner with my friends Caitlin and Allie. After dinner we wanted to go somewhere cozy, so we met up with a few of our other friends at a restaurant called "Peppersack." We sat for awhile in comfy chairs at wooden tables, sipping warm drinks.

After we finally left Peppersack, we tried to find a bar or pub so we could mingle with Estonians, but alas it was Monday night and normal people were in bed since they had class and school in the morning. We walked past the White Bar, which might have been trendy, but looked rather tacky without anyone in it. We also passed a bar devoted to Depeche Mode, but it was already closed at midnight. After failing to find any place that actually had people in it, we ventured back to the hotel, happy to have found some hygge and simply thrilled to be in Estonia.